Spider-Man: The Clone Saga- The Trial of Peter Parker
PART 8
Writers: Todd DeZago, J.M. DeMatteis, Howard Mackie, and Tom DeFalco
Artists: Roy Burdine, Mark Bagley, Tom Lyle, and Sal Buscema
Now we get into the really infamous stuff! Complete with horrendous padding, bad courtroom scenes, and controversial plot twists!
Ranking: 1 star
Welcome to 8th part of CLONE MADNESS dear readers, where we once again take a look at THE CLONE SAGA, which has now officially begun its derailment from this point onward!
Well folks, we’re finally getting into the stories that most readers immediately think of when talking about how bad THE CLONE SAGA was. Remember how in my review of THE MARK OF KAINE, I stated that while the narrative structure and dialogue were a mess, I was still able to enjoy the comic because of several enjoyable scenes. It was for that reason that I considered THE MARK OF KAINE to fall into the category of being a “guilty-pleasure.” I was a little hesitant about calling the book that at first, as while I genuinely enjoyed parts of the story, there were points that did manage to heavily frustrate me. However, after reading THE TRIAL OF PETER PARKER I can safely justify THE MARK OF KAINE’S status as a guilty pleasure, as that story at least had several great scenes and concepts despite its narrative shortcomings. This one on the other hand, has an even worse narrative structure, and very few good scenes in it at all. This is undoubtedly one of the most infamous, horribly written, and controversial story lines from THE CLONE SAGA (second only to the one came right after, MAXIMUM CLONAGE). I’ll admit that I had prior knowledge about what occurred in this story arc from other reviewers, but even their critiques were not enough to prepare me for how bad THE TRIAL OF PETER PARKER is. But before I tear this comic apart, I need to provide some backstory. As I stated in my reviews of THE MARK OF KAINE and THE LOST YEARS, Peter Parker was arrested under murder charges by Detective Jacob Raven from Salt Lake City. In reality though, the murders were actually committed by Kaine, whose first victim was Louise Kennedy, Raven’s partner and Kaine’s lover, who he killed for betraying him at the end of THE LOST YEARS. During the events of THE MARK OF KAINE, Peter was able to escape from prison and Ben Reilly offered to take Peter’s place so that he could be with his pregnant wife while also searching for evidence of the real killer. In the two-part story arc CROSSFIRE, Detective Raven provided Peter evidence that Kaine was the actual murderer in the form of “the Mark of Kaine” scarred across his face, as that same mark was also found on the bodies of the murder victims, along with Peter’s fingerprints. With Ben in prison awaiting trial, Kaine still on the loose with Spider-Man and Raven hunting him down, it has all led up to THE TRIAL OF PETER PARKER, which is one of the most important stories in the entire CLONE SAGA. This was the story that not only promised the resolution of the murder mystery subplot, but also the reveal of Kaine’s true identity, and answer to who was the real Spider-Man and who was the clone: Peter or Ben? Unfortunately though, while THE TRIAL OF PETER PARKER ended up delivering what it promised to the readers, the execution of it was such a failure of global proportions that just leaves me speechless…
The story opens with Spidey swinging across New York while the murder trial has just started. While Ben is filling in for Peter, Peter is attempting to find Kaine and force him to admit that he’s the actual murderer. Kaine suddenly attacks Peter out of nowhere (I’m not even kidding with that), and openly refuses to admit his crimes to the court. Because Ben Reilly has taken Peter’s place in the murder trial, Kaine sees this as the perfect opportunity to have his revenge against Reilly if he is given the death penalty. But the fight is interrupted by the sudden appearance of Judas Traveller. Remember Judas Traveller? He was that boring, underdeveloped god-like villain from THE CLONE SAGA’s opening arc, POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY. The boring villain who nearly ruined the story that officially marked Ben’s return to the Spider-Man mythos (someone please shoot me now…). Traveller then teleports Peter and Kaine away to Ravencroft Asylum, where he plans to hold a trial of his own for Peter. The charges in this case, are that Peter is somehow responsible for the creation of all the asylum’s inmates, which include Carnage, Shriek, Carrion, Vermin, and various others. With Ben facing the threat of being sentenced to death in a badly written trial sequence, Traveller prosecuting Peter with his pseudo-bullcrap arguments, and Kaine refusing to save Ben Reilly, will Peter and Ben be given the verdicts they desire, or will they both be handed down the ultimate judgments. Either way, Traveller will continue to waste readers’ time, Kaine’s identity will finally be revealed, and the question everyone has been asking since the beginning of THE CLONE SAGA will be finally answered: Who is the original Spider-Man and who is the clone? Peter Parker or Ben Reilly?
I’m just amazed at how horribly written THE TRIAL OF PETER PARKER is. This is the first CLONE SAGA story since SMOKE AND MIRRORS that was enough to anger and frustrate me, though admittedly for different reasons than main problem most people have with it. With the exception of MAXIMUM CLONAGE, this story is quite easily the most infamous of the CLONE SAGA as its last chapter (MAJOR SPOILER ALERT) revealed that Peter was actually the clone, and Ben was the original. This plot twist angered a lot of fans, but in my opinion however, it’s the least of THE TRIAL OF PETER PARKER’s failures. Among this comic’s numerous flaws, the ones that were the most prominent to me were the padded out narrative structure, redundant dialogue, the idiotic scenes with Judas Traveller, as well as what are quite easily the worst courtroom scenes ever written in a fictional story.
While I complained about the narrative structure in THE MARK OF KAINE being a mess, it’s honestly worse here. The story literally opens with Kaine showing up out of nowhere and fighting Peter, then Judas Traveller abducting Peter and Kaine to conducts his own trial, the two escaping Traveller, Peter dragging Kaine to the courthouse, Kaine revealing his identity as a failed Spider-Man clone and admitting himself as the actual murderer before being arrested, and then ending with the reveal that Ben is the actually not the clone. Because of the horrible plot construction, there are very few scenes of the actual murder trial. Over half the story is just fight scenes between Spider-Man and Kaine, which are padded out to the point where they fill up the majority of the issues (especially the first and third). Because of the padding and lack of pacing, the dialogue is also badly handled, lacking any weight or depth. It eventually becomes extremely repetitive when Peter and Kaine repeat the same things over and over again to pad out the issues. It’s literally Kaine saying, “I hate Ben Reilly but will do whatever I can to protect you Peter,” and Peter replying, “Ben is a noble person and I’ll drag you to that courthouse and beat a confession out of you,” over and over again. I haven’t seen such horrendous padding since HOLY TERROR and THE DRACO.
Speaking of padding, that’s basically all that Judas Traveller and his bogus trial serves to the plot. I already ranted about Traveller in my POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY review, and how he was an underdeveloped antagonist with no defined backstory or purpose in the overall CLONE SAGA narrative. While those are major problems with this character, the worst sin about him in my opinion is that he is unbelievably boring. He's unreadable levels of boring! That’s my main problem with Judas Traveller, as any scene featuring him immediately takes me out of the story and causes me to lose any interest I had whatsoever. As a result, the entire second issue, which features his pseudo-trial in Ravencroft, is unbearably boring, contributing nothing to the plot and wastes the reader’s time with Traveller’s bullcrap rambling. The other major complaint that I have with Traveller’s scenes is that aside from being boring, they go as far to rip-off the BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES episode, THE TRIAL. That episode featured all of Batman’s villains kidnapping the dark knight and placing him on trial for supposedly being responsible for their creation. Like that episode of BATMAN, Traveller’s trial is based around the same charges, that Spider-Man is responsible for the existence of his enemies, and the prosecution is being carried out by his enemies. To even fathom the fact that this comic blatantly rips-off one of the greatest episodes from the animated Batman TV-series, and also doesn’t even bother to at least make it entertaining (similar to my problems with SPIDER-MAN: REIGN) is incredibly insulting to me. Going back to trials though, the worst sin of THE TRIAL OF PETER PARKER in my opinion is that the titular trial is not only given so little focus, but is quite possibly the most badly-written courtroom scene I’ve ever come across in a fictional story. The majority of the trial scenes that we do get are focused on the district attorney, defense lawyer, and jury outright stating the functions of their jobs. This came across as insulting to the reader’s intelligence in my opinion as the writers treat us as if we had never been to an actual trial, or at least watched or read about one in a fictional story. What makes it worse is it comes across as if he writers themselves also don’t know how murder trials work, as the lawyers in this book do things like use insulting language towards the defendant, as well as forcing MJ to testify against her husband when she suposed to be protected by spousal privilege. Never in my entire life, have I seen a courtroom scene so badly botched in a story. But believe it or not, the issues I've ranted about are not the main reason why this story was so widely hated by Spider-Man fans when it was first released.
But before I delve into what specifically pissed people off about THE TRIAL OF PETER PARKER, I want to elaborate on the only two scenes that I actually enjoyed in this travesty, both of which involve Kaine, who is my other favorite CLONE SAGA character besides Ben Reilly. The first was the scene where Judas Traveller is about to begin his pseudo-trial, but Kaine isn't taking any of Traveller's crap and immediately attacks him, trying to scar him with his "Mark of Kaine." Even though Kaine ends up failing to kill Traveller, it just brings a smile to my face seeing an underrated character that I love trying to kill a crappy character who shouldn't even be in the comic! The other scene that I legitimately thought was good was when Kaine finally reveals to Peter his true identity as a failed Spider-Man clone. As I’ve stated in previous CLONE SAGA reviews, I really love this aspect about Kaine’s character, and felt that it was executed well both here and in the overall narrative of THE CLONE SAGA. While Kaine still does suffer problems in these stories (as does every character in the saga at one point or another), I felt that he actually had much more planning and development than the other villains introduced during the saga. Unlike Judas Traveller or Scrier, who were shoved into the story without any established backstory or purpose, the writers actually took the time into developing Kaine’s character and backstory. I know this not only from what I’ve read about from the writer’s perspective in THE LIFE OF REILLY online essay, but also because the reveal of Kaine being another clone actually fit within the context of THE CLONE SAGA narrative. If you actually look back at earlier stories, all of Kaine’s dialogue in those comics fit within the context of this revelation. Other factors such as Kaine’s hatred of Ben Reilly, and the lengths that he goes to protect Peter and MJ in those stories also help build up to him being a failed clone. Spider-Man editor Glenn Greenberg also stated in THE LIFE OF REILLY that his “Mark of Kaine” scar was the result of Kaine being able to peel flesh off people’s faces with his wall-crawling ability, and that his precognitive visions of the future are an unstable version of the spider-sense. What I also loved about Kaine in this story is that his motivation for him wanting to protect Peter is the result of his belief that Peter is actually the clone. Because of this, Kaine wants to ensure that Peter has a chance at living a happy life whereas he was denied it due to his clone degeneration. I felt that this added a layer of depth and sympathy to Kaine’s character. This also contributed to a great moment where Peter is about to reveal his secret identity to the court in order to protect Reilly from being executed, but Kaine instead confesses his crimes in order to protect Peter’s identity. It was a touching moment that conveyed Kaine having a bit of Peter’s nobility left despite becoming a serial killer.
On a side note about Kaine, a plot hole Linkara pointed out in his review of this abomination of a comic was that Kaine’s framing Reilly for murder by leaving his fingerprints (which were identical to Ben's) on Louise Kennedy's body, but since Ben was a clone of Peter, how did Kaine not see the risk of Peter accidentally taking the blame? In fairness though, it's shown that when Kaine killed her back in THE LOST YEARS, Ben was not only there at the scene of the crime after Kaine fled, but that Detective Raven found Ben standing over Louise's body. The only other murders Kaine committed that caught Detective Raven's attention were the mobsters he killed in THE EXILE RETURNS, which lead him to coming to New York where he was able to gain compare Peter's fingerprints to the ones that Kaine left on Louise Kennedy's body back in Salt Lake City, and since New York was the only state that had records of Peter's prints, only then was Raven able to file a warrant for Peter's arrest. As such, I feel that Kaine believed that Peter was safe from harm as long as he and Ben stayed away from New York, since Raven had no jurisdiction there (until Kaine killed the aforementioned mobsters that is) and only knew of the existence of Ben Reilly and not Peter Parker, but Kaine's plans were botched when he followed Ben to the big apple and then got carried away by actively killing Spider-Man villains out of desperation due to the visions he had of MJ being killed by an unknown assailant. Despite that plot hole, the reveal of Kaine’s identity is the only saving grace about this mess of a story in my eyes (that and it ultimately did end up leading to the creation of THE LOST YEARS, which is my number one favorite CLONE SAGA story).
And now it’s finally time to discuss the elephant in the room, the true reason that THE TRIAL OF PETER PARKER was so widely reviled and hated when it was first released. While all problems I previously mentioned are the comic’s major failings in my opinion, the one criticism that overshadows all of them is the story’s ending. At the end of the story, Peter, Ben, and MJ are called to the lab of Dr. Seward Trainer, Ben’s friend and confidant. Dr. Trainer there provides evidence that Peter may actually be the clone instead of Ben Reilly, and after a series of extensive tests, the results show that Ben is in fact the original Spider-Man, and that Peter has been the clone this whole time. Unsurprisingly, the decision to reveal that Peter was the clone was heavily criticized by both fans and several members of Marvel’s staff, as it implied that the Spidey readers had been following since the 1970’s was not the real one. To be perfectly honest though, what bothers me is not the revelation itself, as I feel that fooling the readers that Peter was actually the clone (albeit temporarily in my opinion) could have been made to work (and I'll explain why in a minute). So for me, it’s not the revelation itself that angers me, but rather how it is portrayed in the story. Immediately after discovering that he’s a clone, Peter erupts into a violent rage and assaults Ben Reilly, nearly killing him and accidentally hitting MJ in a controversial moment before running off in despair (all of which is made worse by Sal Buscema's artwork at its absolute worst; seriously, the amount of scratchy pencils and inks, along with brown and murky colors actually made the issue physically painful to look at when I was reading it). What angers me about the handling of this scene is not only that Peter’s behavior completely contradicts his earlier defenses of Ben as a noble person (he immediately thinks the absolute worst of Ben and Dr. Trainer), but also that the writers treat the idea that Peter being a clone is the absolute worst thing that could ever happen to him. That’s just bullcrap in my opinion, as I feel that it doesn’t really matter whether or not he’s a clone. As I’ve stated in throughout these CLONE SAGA reviews, while both Peter and Ben are both great characters in their own right, with different lives and experiences, they still possess the beliefs and morals that make them Peter Parker at heart. Essentially, they are both Peter Parker, and could easily fill in the role as Spider-Man. It doesn’t matter if one of them is a clone as they are both human beings that are different yet the same. So instead of outright stating that Peter is a clone and that he should be disregarded, I feel that the writers should have instead either left the idea of who was the clone ambiguous, or simply say that it doesn't really matter. That way the readers could accept both Peter and Ben as Spider-Man, while also holding onto the value of Peter’s existence in stories that took place before THE CLONE SAGA. I know that this idea can work because I witnessed it in THE “REAL” CLONE SAGA 6-issue miniseries, where Peter’s words of, “I thought about this long and hard… and I honestly don’t care if I am the clone. The way I live is more important than the way I was born. I want to focus on the future. Not the Past,” truly hit home with me, and showed me just how much potential this idea possessed. But that’s just my opinion on the whole matter…
To say that THE TRIAL OF PETER PARKER is a bad story is an understatement in my opinion. In fact, before I delved into the utter idiocy that was MAXIMUM CLONAGE, I was nearly prepared to call this one the worst of all THE CLONE SAGA stories. Aside from the one good scene that revealed Kaine’s identity as a failed Spider-Man clone, virtually nothing is done right in this story. The narrative structure is filled to the brim with horrendous padding, the dialogue is extremely repetitive, the titular trial is both horribly written and given little focus, half of the book is either fight scenes between Spider-Man and Kaine or the boring pseudo-trial by Judas Traveller, and the final reveal of Peter being the clone, and Ben the original, which could have been done extremely well in my humble opinion, was both horribly mishandled and only managed to piss off long-time Spider-Man fans. When I first decided to start doing this series of CLONE SAGA reviews, I knew from the beginning that THE TRIAL OF PETER PARKER was going to be one of the worst, but I was completely unprepared for just how bad it actually was! Man did I hate this one!!! The only question is… what could possibly be worse than this?! Well find out in part 9 of CLONE MADNESS, where we finally reach the absolute worst of all the CLONE SAGA stories… MAXIMUM CLONAGE!!!
“When reading a book, one hopes it doesn’t turn into a painful process. Predictable is bad enough. Laborious is acceptable if the labor produces fruit. But with painfully bad writing, all one can do is grab a hatchet, slice off its head, and bury it.”
' Chila Woychik, ON BEING A RAT AND OTHER OBSERVATIONS
